1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool pot cleaning system for a tool magazine, and more particularly to a tool pot cleaning system installed in a tool magazine of an automatic tool exchanger (ATC) with a design to automatically perform the air jetting operation by means of the movement of the tool pot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional ATC systems, there have been those equipped with special cleaners designed to jet the air from the outside of the tool pot, but it seems that no such types as to effect the operation for cleaning the inside of the tool pot by utilizing the movement of the tool pot itself have been offered. Recently, a compact spindle unit equipped with ATC system as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, wherein a tool exchange arm 2 is provided on a spindle head 1, and on top of the latter, a tool magazine 3 is mounted, has been developed. However, this spindle unit equipped with ATC system is disadvantageous in that, because of the close location of the tool pot 4 of the tool magazine 3 to that of the spindle's tapered portion 5 for fitting tools, chips and waterdrops tend to reach down to the inside of the tool pot, and the inside of the tool pot is quite easily contaminated.
In the above conventional spindle unit, there can be seen a spindle head having an air passage therein through which air jet is provided to the tool pot formed at the tapered portion of the spindle head. However, an effective cleaning of the tool pot can not be done by the air jet where the ATC is provided near the spindle head, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. A tool, therefore, installed in the tool pot with remained chips results unsatisfactory working accuracy.